Research & Politics

1. Open Access
2. Article processing charge (APC)
3. Article Types
   3.1 Research Articles
   3.2 Research Notes
   3.3 Replication studies
   3.4 Preregistration
   3.5 Special Issues
   3.6 Rejoinders and comments
   3.7 Writing your paper
   3.8 Making your article discoverable
4. Editorial policies
   4.1 Peer Review Policy
   4.2 Authorship
   4.3 Acknowledgements
   4.4 Funding
   4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
5. Publishing policies
   5.1 Publication ethics
   5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
   5.3 Transparency, Openness and Replication Policy
   5.4 DEI statement
6. Preparing your manuscript
   6.1 Word processing formats
   6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   6.3 Supplementary material
   6.4 Reference style
   6.5 English language editing services
7. Submitting your manuscript
   7.1 ORCID
   7.2 Information required for completing your submission
   7.3 Corresponding author contact details
   7.4 Permissions
8. On acceptance and publication
   8.1 Sage Production
   8.2 Continuous publication
   8.3 Promoting your article
9. Further information

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics

Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rap to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submision site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Research & Politics will be reviewed. As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
The Journal may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

1. Open Access

Research & Politics is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of article processing charges which are paid by the funder, institution or author of each manuscript upon acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.

For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.

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2. Article processing charge (APC)

Since its launch in 2014, Research & Politics (R&P) has operated as a successful Open Access journal. In 2021, we are proud to announce that the journal receives its first Impact Factor (IF) in the Journal of Citation Reports (JCR), following the inclusion of Research & Politics in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI).
 
For the first two years, Sage subsidized and waived Article Processing Charges (APCs) and from 2016 until July 2020, the Carnegie Corporation of New York generously sponsored open access APCs for Research & Politics authors. Sage has continued to finance the journal with no APC charge to authors since July 2020, but the journal needs to be financially viable in the long term.

The current APC for this journal is $800 and $400 for Research Note.
 
For authors who reside in countries described by the Research4Life program waivers are standard and will be automatically applied. Where an author is eligible for an Open Access Agreement with Sage, discounted rates will also be automatically applied. Not having an APC would mean that R&P has no access to funding from transformative agreements.
 
Editors will have full discretion to waive the APC for any articles that do not have funding. The journal remains committed to rigorous peer-review, fast turnaround time and publishing research of the highest quality. The ability to pay an APC will not feature in the editorial decision-making process.

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3. Article types

Research & Politics strongly encourages replication studies for publication and distinguishes between two submission formats: research articles and research notes. In addition to the research articles published on the website, Research & Politics will be publishing special issues.

Click here to view the Call for Proposals of Special Issues

3.1 Research Articles

The journal encourages short articles. Articles should normally not exceed 4,000 words including notes and references but excluding figures, tables and images or any supporting material that will appear as supplemental online appendices. The number of notes should not exceed 12. The main criterion for evaluating articles is that they contribute to our systematic knowledge about important substantive, theoretical, or methodological questions. Research articles can be - but are not limited to - articles that:

• Offer new theoretical or normative arguments in a systematic way;
• Analyze original data;
• Re-analyze existing data in a novel fashion;
• Analyze systematically current events;
• Make predictions in politics;
• Update seminal articles with new data;
• Discuss newly collected data and how these can be used to advance our knowledge about important substantive or theoretical questions. It is important to show how this new data set helps by analyzing and discussing an important issue from the current literature. 

3.2 Research Notes

These should focus on a controversy in the literature, present a new empirical finding, or discuss the policy implications of recently gained insight. These notes have a limit of 2,000 words including notes and references but excluding figures, tables and images or any supporting material that will appear as supplemental online appendices. The number of notes should not exceed 8. Research Notes may also respond to or replicate existing research. These may include reports on null-results for cases where previously non-trivial statistical relationships were claimed.

3.3 Replication studies

In case of replication studies, Research & Politics invites authors to consider submitting a paper that is along the lines of one or more of the following replication types:

Theoretical replication: The submitted article argues that the original theoretical model is missing at least one key element. The missing element(s) are addressed and included in the empirical analysis.

Technical replication: The submitted article identifies faults in the original research design or analysis, thereby arguing that the original results might not hold; and/or

Concept replication: The submitted article questions the validity of the original study. An alternative measurement or operationalisation is proposed which yields different substantive results.

Once a replication study has been accepted to begin the review process, two reviewers will be selected and the author of the original manuscript will be notified. The author of the original study will be approached for a rejoinder, which will be reviewed (preferably a shorter paper of 2,000 words max).  The General Editor will review the response and will decide if the response will be published alongside the submitted replication study.

3.4 Preregistration

Research & Politics allows authors to register their studies, but this is not an obligation. Registration might also be relevant for cases in which existing studies are re-analyzed (ideally by collecting new data, or re-analyzing existing datasets following closely the format of the original study), particularly of research published in this journal.  When possible, such studies are reviewed in two stages following the Registered Reports format.  In particular, the first stage of review is conducted prior to the data being collected or, for existing datasets, before the outcomes are observed: 

1. On initial submission, authors should:
   • denote in the cover letter that the manuscript is a Registered Report submission and confirm that the data do not exist, or that the outcomes have not been observed.
   • include a full manuscript for the abstract, introduction, and methods without the results and discussion sections. 
   • disclose that the methods contain a complete analysis plan of what is to be included in the full article.
2.   If the submission passes initial review, then the authors will receive an in-principle acceptance prior to data                        collection or  analysis of the outcomes.
3.  For the second stage of review, authors submit a complete manuscript.  Reviewers assess the extent to which the             authors followed the preregistered design and/or analysis plan, and evaluate non-outcome relevant criteria (e.g.,               manipulation  checks) to confirm whether the research was an effective test of the research question.  

3.5 Special Issues

Research & Politics may publish special issues. In the format of this journal, a special issue is a bundle of closely related research papers on a specific topic. Special issues are important to provide a platform for debate, highlighting different perspectives, approaches or methods that can be used to understand important issues in our field.

When published, these articles will be linked on our website, making clear that these focus on a specific topic. Furthermore, there is flexibility, within the possibilities of online-only publishing, to develop new modes of presenting these articles on our website.

The journal will open once per year a call for special issues, typically in Spring. The call will be announced on our website as well as Twitter channel.  Important criteria to develop a special issue that fits with the overall mission of the journal and whether the papers as a set stimulate discussion in our field. 

For more information about a proposal, please see our guidelines below.

After acceptance, the Guest Editor as well as one of the Research & Politics Editors will guide the special issue. The same procedures and guidelines apply as for research articles for the review process or any other issues arising.

Special Issue Guidelines:

A proposal for a special issue includes the following elements:

1. Name and affiliation of the proposed Guest Editor who is willing to serve next to one of our R&P Editors as Associate Editor for the special issue. There can be a maximum of three Guest Editors involved in making a special issue.
2. Short CV of the proposed Guest Editor including major publications and editorial experience.
3. Description of the main topic and focus of the special issue embedded in the current literature of this topic.
4. A motivation for why a special issue would be relevant to our readers, and to what extent the special issue will promote novel findings and new insights. There should also be a brief motivation for why a special issue would be a better way of presenting these findings and insights needs to be included.
5. List of papers to be included with full author information, including their affiliation and a clear and informative abstract.
6. A clarification about how these papers stimulate discussion but indicating how these papers highlight different perspectives, approaches or methods that can be used to understand the topic at hand. 
7. Indication of the time-frame of submission and when papers will be ready to be submitted.

Proposals will be discussed by the Editors, who decide on whether they favor a specific proposal. 

Other important guidelines:

1. If the initial proposal is accepted, the Editors will ask for a more detailed proposal, in which also more information is shared about authors and their possible papers, the time-line and some other more operational issues. At this stage also possible comments from the Editors of R&P need to be included in the proposal.
2. The Guest Editor will work closely with our Editorial Office and one of our Editors. Each Special Issue will be assigned an Editor of Research and Politics. The Guest Editor will serve as an Associate Editor. The R&P Editor will need to approve all decisions recommended by the Guest Editor.
3. Reviewing will be done according to the R&P policy and submission rules. Furthermore, Guest Editor is expected to adhere to the R&P editorial policy as well as the reviewing process including turnaround times.
4. It is R&P policy that a Guest Editor does not submit her/his own paper for consideration in the special issue at hand.
5. The Editors of R&P reserve the right to reject a contribution to the special issue, even after the review stage, if it is not of acceptable standard.
 

3.6 Rejoinders and comments

1. Comments on an article published in R&P or elsewhere
If there is a paper reacting to an article published in R&P or elsewhere, the author(s) of the original article is/are invited to consider a comment. The author(s) will be informed the moment the reacting paper is received. However, the author will not be a formal reviewer or directly determine the decision whether to publish.

If the author(s) of the original paper decide(s) to submit a response, this is also reviewed as it needs to meet scientific standards and contain sufficiently interesting material to merit publication. Upon publication of a respose, the discussion is closed. Any further discussion must be done elsewhere.

2. Secondary or replication work on previous research
In the case of secondary or replication work on previous research, the submitted article will be regarded as an original contribution (Article). Unless it is explicitly addresses the methodological issues with the original paper and replication, the work will be treated as a new submission. If the replication concerns a specific paper, the authors of the work discussed are informed and invited to comment (see our policy under point 1).

If the article concerns a specific literature, scholars in that field are not informed. In that case we will follow the following procedure:
i. When a comment from the author(sP whose work is being discussed is received, the comment is reviewed and send to the authors of the original contribution with the invitation to respond.
ii. This comment (Comment 1) may be published after reviewing. If the author of the original contribution would like to respond, we review this Comment 2. The commenting author as well as the authors of the original article can comment during reviewing but they are not included in a decision about the paper. When published the discussion will be closed.
iii. Furhter discussion can be done elsewhere. Only Article, Comment 1 and Comment 2 are published.

IMPORTANT: Comments must be scholarly, understandable to outsiders, and of sufficient general interest to merit publication. Research & Politics reserves the right to make editorial suggestions and reject if we cannot reach agreement.

3.7 Writing your paper
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation. 

3.8 Making your article discoverable

For more information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online. 
 

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4. Editorial policies

4.1 Peer review policy

Research & Politics operates a high-quality, quick, double-blind peer review process in which the reviewer's name is withheld from the author and the author's name from the reviewer. All submissions to Research & Politics are double-blind peer reviewed. Papers submitted by Associate Editors are submitted to double-blind peer review.

Each paper is sent out to at least one external reviewer, but in comparison to most existing political science journals, the evaluative process is more heavily concentrated in the hands of the editorial team. The peer review process is as follows:

• Vetting by the Editorial Office to ensure that the article conforms to the Research & Politics guidelines on length and style. This vetting process includes processing of papers using plagiarism software.
• Review by a General Editor who will take a decision on whether to send it out for external review. If an article is deemed of insufficient quality or novelty it can be rejected by the General Editor in conjunction with an Associate Editor at this stage. The author will be informed of this decision with a brief note spelling out the reason for rejection. If the manuscript passes this stage, it will be reviewed.
• The General Editor delegates the decision-making authority to an Associate Editor. Two external reviewers will be selected by the Associate Editor and the General Editor will make the final decision.
• Reviewers are expected to respond in 30 days. Referee reports are typically 2 pages (or 500 words maximum). If the reviewer is unable to complete a review the journal applies the following policy:
  • If a reviewer indicates that she/he is unable to submit a report in the first or second week of this process, a new reviewer will be selected;
  • If a reviewer appears to be unable to submit a report after some time, the General Editor may decide that the Associate should provide his/her view on the manuscript in a brief report, which is submitted to the General Editor.

A manuscript may be rejected on the basis of one negative review, especially if this review comes from one of the Associate Editors.

In exceptional cases, a manuscript may be assigned a ‘revise and resubmit’. Such a decision will only be offered if there is a reasonable expectation that the author can meet the expectations set out in a letter with meaningful guidelines for improving the initial submission. Typically, a revised manuscript will only be reviewed by the Associate Editor or one of the referees.

The editors will also continually assess the quality levels of the refereeing procedure and annually review the Associate Editors team to ensure that its range of expertise is aligned with submission and research trends.

Our goal is to publish papers online within 25 working days of acceptance where possible.

Previous Reviewer Comments

Research & Politics permits authors whose papers are not accepted by one journal and who wish to submit their manuscripts to Research & Politics to request that the previous set of reviews be forwarded by the other journal. In such case[s], Research & Politics requires all reviews from the other journal. Authors should request that the editors of the other journal submit all reviews, subject to the original reviewers giving permission for their review to be shared with another journal. Without prior consent, reviews will not be used. The reviews and confirmation of reviewer permissions should be sent to the Research & Politics editorial office (mail: rap@fgga.leidenuniv.nl) by the other journal. Research & Politics will not accept peer reports directly submitted by the author. Research & Politics is committed to ensuring that the identity of the original reviewers and the author are not revealed to either party, upholding double blind peer review. The editors or associate editors of Research & Politics will also commission additional peer review reports before making a decision, as indicated by our policy. The main advantages of this option are to reduce the workload on reviewers and to potentially speed up publication time.

Please note that R&P does not ask reviewers who have previously reviewed a manuscript to excuse themselves, but we encourage reviewers who have seen a previous version of a manuscript to notify the editor. If no changes have been made to the manuscript following the previous review, then it may be appropriate to submit the same review. If the author has made revisions, then it may also be appropriate to treat the manuscript as akin to a resubmission, based on the previous review.

Recommended Reviewers 

As part of the submission process you will be asked to provide the names of X peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below: 

• The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission
• The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors
• Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted

Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.

4.2 Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

         Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

4.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

4.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

4.3.2 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance”).

It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

4.4 Funding

Research & Politics requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

Authors are required to state whether their contribution is based on independent research or not. Within your Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement, you will be required to make a certification with respect to a declaration of conflicting interests. Research & Politics additionally requires a declaration of conflicting interests to be included in the acknowledgements footnote. Good practice guidelines together with details of how to make a declaration of conflicting interest can be found on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

Each author should disclose any paid or unpaid positions as officer, director, or board member of relevant non-profit organizations or profit-making entities. A ‘relevant’ organization is one whose policy positions, goals, or financial interests relate to the article.

If the research on which the contribution is based has been funded by others, either fully or partially, or has been made possible through the provision of resources without which the research could not have been done, the names of these organizations need to be stated in an Acknowledgement in a manner consistent with the Guidance for Research Funders, Authors and Publishers issued by the Research Information Network (RIN). Please visit Funding Acknowledgements on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text. In the event that no funding has been received please state in your acknowledgements that: ‘This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.’

For information on publication ethics we encourage our authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) website.

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5. Publishing policies

5.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

5.1.1 Plagiarism

Research & Politics and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

5.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement.  Research & Politics publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard  license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to visit Sage's OA licenses page

Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request.

5.3 Transparency, Openness and Replication Policy

Research & Politics complies with the Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT) statement and TOP Guidelines and, as such, endorses policies requiring authors to make as accessible as possible the empirical foundation and logic of inquiry of evidence-based research. Contributions based on qualitative and quantitative data must be well documented and, if data is collected by the author, well described.

Research & Politics requires authors to delineate clearly the design and analytic procedures upon which their published claims rely. Authors have to identify and disclose the types and key aspects of the research design to every extent possible. Please see the Publication Types Policy for the different types of replication studies. The information will be sent to reviewers, revised alongside the paper in every round and published alongside the paper (as appendix or online supplement).If such materials are not published with the article, they must be shared to the greatest extent possible through a digital repository.

Authors have to use data citation practices that identify a dataset’s author(s), title, date, version, and a persistent identifier ,for example a Digital Object identifier (DOI). In sum, we will require authors who base their claims on data created by others to reference and cite those data as an intellectual product of value.

It is Research & Politics' policy that authors submit detailed information on empirical analysis alongside their written article. Authors should upload at least the first four files listed below when they submit their article.

• data set
• syntax file(s) from the software that has been used for the analysis;
• explanatory memo: explaining enclosed files/material and their content including help with regard to the analysis, which is important when non-standard techniques have been used; this may also apply to qualitative work; also some information on the software used for the analysis, including its version, is required;
• log file(s): output with results from the software that has been used for the analysis;
• Additional data analysis, including robustness analyses

Authors must provide a separate readme PDF listing all included files and documenting the purpose and format of each file provided, as well as instructing a user on how the replication can be conducted.

Making datasets publicly available is also a policy of Research & Politics. Authors should ensure that data is available at the time of publication through a recognised third party data repository and will be prompted to upload their data to Dataverse on acceptance of their article. The manuscript will not be moved through to Production until data is uploaded to a third party data repository and the link has been provided as instructed on acceptance. If cited data is restricted (e.g. classified, require confidentiality protections, were obtained under a non-disclosure agreement, or have inherent logistical constraints), authors must notify the editor at the time of submission. The editor shall have full discretion to follow their journal’s policy on restricted data, including declining to review the manuscript of granting an exemption with or without conditions. The editor shall inform the author of this decision prior to review.

It is the responsibility of the author to make their data available via third party repository. It is preferred that data is uploaded to the Research & Politics Dataverse site, but other trusted digital repositories can be found below:

• DRYAD*
• FigShare
• The Open Science Framework

*Note that there is a charge for using this service.

Please make sure that your data does not contain variables with personal identifying information (PII), particularly IP Addresses and location georeferences, among others. Such data may not be published in a public archive.

Research & Politics also requires authors to delineate clearly the analytic procedures upon which their published claims rely, and where possible provide access to all relevant analytic materials. If such materials are not published with the article, they must be shared to the greatest extent possible through a digital repository (above).

Research & Politics encourages authors to use data citation practices that identify a dataset’s author(s), title, date, version, and a persistent identifier. In sum, we will require authors who base their claims on data created by others to reference and cite those data as an intellectual product of value.

Researchers conducting experimental studies are encouraged to consider pre-registering their research design in advance with an established  registry, for example egap (Evidence in Governance and Politics, see http://egap.org/content/registration).

Preregistration of Studies and Analysis Plans

Research & Politics also publishes papers where authors indicate the conducted research was preregistered with an analysis plan in an independent, institutional registry (e.g., http://clinicaltrials.gov/,https://socialscienceregistry.org/,http://openscienceframework.org/, http://egap.org/design-registration/, http://ridie.3ieimpact.org/). Preregistration of studies involves registering the study design, variables, and treatment conditions. Including an analysis plan involves specification of sequence of analyses or the statistical model that will be reported.

For preregistered studies, the following requirements apply:

1. Authors must, in acknowledgments or the first footnote, indicate that research was preregistered in an independent, institutional registry (with name and link to its location) with an analysis plan;
2. The author must:
   1. confirm in the text that the study was registered prior to conducting the research with links to the time-stamped preregistration(s) at the institutional registry, and that the preregistration adheres to the disclosure requirements of the institutional registry or those required for the preregistered badge with analysis plans maintained by the Center for Open Science.
   2. report all pre-registered analyses in the text, or, if there were changes in the analysis plan following preregistration, those changes must be disclosed with explanation for the changes clearly distinguish in text analyses that were preregistered from those that were not, such as having separate sections in the results for confirmatory and exploratory analyses (these changes are added as a separate document linked to the text of the main paper).

5.4 DEI Statement 

Research & Politics states unequivocally that diversity and inclusiveness are essential for all aspects of our work.  As a general interest journal in political science, virtually all papers that we publish illuminate the operations, prospects, and limitations of democratic or authoritarian forms of government.  We believe that diversity and inclusiveness are foundational to any understanding of the aspirations of democracy over its alternatives in advancing justice, fairness, and legitimate government.   

Our core values guide our decisions and operations.  We purposefully strive to eliminate our own implicit biases, foster inclusion for all ideas, and ensure that those who seek to publish in our journal are treated with fairness and respect.  Research & Politics is committed to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion through our publishing practices.  This includes,

• Striving to diversify our team of editors and associate editors to reflect the diverse voices of our discipline and our society;
• Empowering diverse perspectives and voices from our contributor community, including those of different genders and gender identities, BIPOC scholars, those from different global regions, those from the LGBTQIA+ community, and those of any identity community especially those that have been historically excluded; 
• Publishing research that can enhance our systemic understanding of justice and equity, and injustice and inequity, within social and economic relations, within the built environment, and within local, national and global communities.

As stewards of our journal, we believe that in adhering to these values and practices centered on advancing diversity and inclusion, Research & Politics advances a better and fuller epistemic understanding of our political life, which in turn leads to wider social and political impacts that can help us all realize the essential aspirations of democracy.

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6. Preparing your manuscript

(i) Title page. The author must attach a separate file containing full title and subtitle (if any). Keep the title concise and informative. The title page must also include the corresponding author’s full contact information (including email address, mailing address, telephone number and institutional affiliation, as well as the names and institutional affiliations of all co-authors). Where appropriate, authors should also list their Twitter handles which will be used for the promotion of the paper if accepted. In some cases, especially when the paper is submitted together with a data set, including various instructions and supporting material that are stored elsewhere, the journal will rely on single blind reviewing if these materials contain the names of the authors or when these materials can be traced back to the possible authors. Also in these cases we want the submitted paper without personal identifiers as indicated above.

(ii) Abstract. Up to 200 words; should briefly specify (a) the purpose of the paper, (b) the approach/design/methodology used, (c) the main findings of the paper; (d) the implications of these findings, including possible limitations. The abstract is not included in the article word limit.

(iii) Keywords: A list of up to 6. Avoid general or plural terms; use only those abbreviations that are firmly established in political science.

(iv) Main text. Word count should not exceed 4,000 words (Research Article) or 2,000 words (Research Note) including notes and references but excluding figures, tables, images and any supporting material that will appear as supplementary appendices (see below). Text should be clearly organized, with a clear hierarchy of headings and subheadings and quotations exceeding 40 words displayed, indented, in the text. Tables and Figures should be included in the main text. If placing the figures in the appropriate place is not possible for some reason, the author should explain why under 'Details & Comments' in the ScholarOne™ Manuscripts online system. All figures and tables should be clearly captioned and references in the text.

End notes should be signalled by superscript number in the main text and listed at the end of the text before the references. The number of notes should not exceed 12 (Research Article) or 8 (Research Note). The number of references should not exceed 40 (Research Article) or 25 (Research Note).

The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for left and right hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point. Endnotes and references may be single-spaced using the same font size as that used in the body of the manuscript.

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. Acknowledgements, the Funding Statement and any Declaration of Conflicting Interest should appear at the end of your article prior to any notes and your references.

(v) Data and Replication Information Meta-Document. Authors must provide a separate readme PDF listing all included files and documenting the purpose and format of each file provided, as well as instructing a user on how the replication can be conducted.

(vi) Institutional or Human Subjects Review Board Approval (if applicable). This should be submitted as a separate document and will not count towards the article word limit. It will be reviewed by the General Editor and Associate Editor but not sent out for external review.

(vi) Supplementary files (where appropriate). Research & Politics is able to host supplemental files online alongside the full-text of articles. The supplementary files should be submitted as separate files to make sure the words are not counted as part of the main document. 

Where provided, supplemental files will be subjected to peer-review alongside the article and must be formatted in the same way as the article; accompanying text should not exceed 500 words except under exceptional circumstances and with the approval of the editors. This text is not included in the article word limit. Supplementary files should be uploaded in the “Data Upload” submission step. 
Types of appendices accepted include:

• Mathematical proofs;
• Simulation code;
• Description of an experiment used;
• Details on the research design, including a discussion of alternatives or previously used designs
• Audio/video files
• Tables and figures

A variety of file types are accepted for graphics, audio and video.
Sage also support video abstracts (Vidabs), short video introductions to articles which can be linked to from the Table of Contents pages. Please see the video abstract guidelines for more information.

6.1 Word processing formats

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines  

Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.

6.3 Supplementary material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files

6.4 Reference style

Research & Politics adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. Please review the guidelines on Sage Harvard to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard output file here

6.5 English language editing services

When the scientific content of the submission is worthy of consideration for acceptance in Research & Politics, but the submission's usage of the English language is not sufficient, the author can be advised to seek help from a native speaker or consider another way to check their paper on English. Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. This is a payable English language editing service that is suggested but not obligatory to submission.

Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

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7. Submitting your manuscript

Research & Politics is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rap to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

7.1 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

7.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

7.3 Corresponding author contact details

Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.

7.4 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

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8. On acceptance and publication

If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been check for Sage Production, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online within an average of 25 days.

8.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

8.2 Online publication

One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to view and download for all.

8.3 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

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9. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Research & Politics editorial office as follows:

rap@fgga.leidenuniv.nl

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